wisdom and discernment

Recently, a student asked me how I would define emotional rooting, which @Roots of Virtue has alluded to throughout the dialogues in various threads here. Immediately, the connection between developing emotional rooting as Ueshiba Morihei did for Aikido came to mind, because of his evolved mind...

Learning from Mistakes with Teachers View: https://youtu.be/P2EQ0FlVks4 Thulsa Doom: "Look at the strength of your body, the desire in your heart. I gave you this!" For those of gentle, childish, and uncultivated attitudes, please read the article as satire as not to hurt your precious...

From the ashes of The Scamgong Bulletin rises another forum branch: The Public Square. It's open to all our registered members. The purpose of the Public Square is to house discussion about specific teachers and teachings which aren't invited by us. The unregistered viewers are ironically left...

In recent times, I've juggled with the idea of my teaching model, especially the pricing scheme. I generally enjoy teaching one-on-one and guiding people, and if there are small groups, it's more intimate that way so that nobody feels left out or people don't wander around and get distracted...

For our most esteemed readers, I hereby offer you the newest forum branch called Energy and Evidence: https://forum.alchemical.garden/branch/evidence/ The name is tentative and may change at some point, but it's aptly descriptive of what it is about: Giving a basic idea about various...

One of the sayings of late Grandmaster David Chan was that there are two possibilities for anyone claiming master status and giving public displays: a) they know a lot more and are hiding their actual skill since a public demo can be recorded and copied by people who learn from observation, b)...

The Unsurpassed Benefits of Studying Well and the Downfalls of Its Neglect We want to practice internal arts for the results in self-transformation, but even a good practice itself is rarely enough for deep understanding. The reason is that everyone has many lifetimes of unconsciously adapted...

Hilarious Folk Stories and Stories About Fools Sharing stories is good entertainment for everyone, but everyone likes even more when the stories are hilarious! Here we gather various hilarious folk stories and stories about fools around the world. Remember to include sources if it's not too...

The Wisdom of the Story Tellers: Fables and Parables Sharing fables, stories, and parables is probably the most ancient cultural tradition humanity has practiced. Is there anybody who doesn't love to hear wise lessons and connect with other people through entertaining story telling? Here we...

Liveliness of Discussion and How to Avoid Treading Water I want to spell it clearly about what makes for a lively discussion so that active threads don't start treading water and stagnate. Don't make hit and run posts or have that type of loser mentality where you are already willing to give...

A conversation with both Master JR Rodriguez and I and also a separate conversation with @小梦想 had the latter bring up verbatim the title of this essay. Background: we were chatting about the kinds of individuals interested in power and the internal arts, which for the sake of discussion, I will...

Here is a gem which Sifu Terry wrote in 2016. It is a colorful commentary on Miguel Farias and his book on meditation and psychoses. I came across this article interviewing this Oxford-educated researcher on meditation who has written a book titled, "The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change...

About the Authenticity of Dr. Baolin Wu's Books Yesterday I was reading (oriental medicine doctor and licensed acupuncturist) Dr. Baolin Wu's book Eight Immortals' Revolving Sword of Pure Yang (2011) and came to a passage about Wang Xiangzhai, the famous internal martial artist and Zhan Zhuang...

Simple answer: don’t do it. Qigong usually is the big problem here because unstable and overstimulated qi easily rises to the head. If you allow qi to rise to the head and don’t know how to ground it, it can lead to later mental health issues such as delusions and anxiety, depression, anger...

Wanting Direct Taste and Independence As Measures of Spiritual Growth Why do we need spiritual teachers? It's a good question because real wisdom comes through the direct taste of experiences and personal effort. Intermediate agencies like personal biases and clinging to formalities could easily...

This message will later become an introduction to the topic of critical views on lineage transmission.

One of the main theses about Alchemical Garden Forum is that there is a need to make a distinction between low quality and high quality practice. Therefore, we need to have some sense of awareness and curiosity about what happens in the world at large. I'm pleased to announce a brand new forum...

Fear of Missing out: A Marketing Ploy to Monetize Spiritual Cultivation There are many violent ways to control and entrap unwary people, but often times it can literally pay back in saved time and money if you pay attention early whether there are subtle mechanisms of manipulation that heighten...

Real Healer Saints and Communication with Angels? Hah! In the past years there has been a somewhat universal Western trend that some people seek personal connection with what they imagine as divine and come up with practical approaches which could accurately be described as a genre of...

Martial Kick-Ass Wisdom: How to Apply Power and Intention Correctly We have this forum branch for discussing about timeless wisdom as you well know. Having the correct view about meditation and spontaneous presence is always pertinent, but many traditional pieces of advice often come with the...